The growth chart

These are the ranges we see in our own lines, measured and recorded on every litter we have raised. Your puppy will not track the middle of the range and does not need to — the shape of the curve matters far more than any single number.

Age	Male	Female	What is happening
Birth	1–2 lb	1–2 lb	Weighed twice daily for the first week
1 month	8–12 lb	7–11 lb	Still entirely on the dam
2 months	18–26 lb	16–22 lb	Goes home at 9 weeks
3 months	30–45 lb	27–40 lb	Fastest growth begins
4 months	45–65 lb	40–55 lb	Teething; appetite enormous
5 months	60–85 lb	50–70 lb	Leggy and uncoordinated
6 months	70–100 lb	60–85 lb	Roughly two thirds of adult weight
8 months	90–120 lb	75–100 lb	Height nearly complete
1 year	105–145 lb	90–120 lb	Growth plates still open
18 months	125–165 lb	100–135 lb	Plates close; exercise can increase
2–3 years	140–185 lb	110–145 lb	Filling out across the chest

How to read it

Height finishes first. A Great Dane reaches most of its adult height by 12 months, then spends another one to two years filling out across the chest and shoulders. A yearling looks gangly and that is correct.
The ranges are wide for a reason. A 105 lb male at twelve months is not undersized. Parentage matters more than the average.
Above the range is not a good sign. A puppy tracking well above these numbers is being overfed, not winning. Slow him down.
A plateau is normal. Growth happens in bursts with flat weeks between them.

We send every puppy home with its own recorded weights from birth, and we are happy to keep plotting them with you through the first year. Send us the numbers — several families do.

Why slow is better

This is counter-intuitive and it is the thing new Dane owners most often get wrong. You are not trying to grow the biggest possible dog. You are trying to grow the same dog more slowly.

Adult size is set by genetics. Feeding more does not make a Great Dane taller — it makes him reach the same height faster, carrying more weight on cartilage that has not hardened yet. The result is a well-documented set of developmental orthopaedic diseases:

Hypertrophic osteodystrophy (HOD) — painful inflammation at the growth plates, with fever and lameness.
Osteochondrosis (OCD) — cartilage flaps in the shoulder, elbow or hock, frequently needing surgery.
Panosteitis — "growing pains", shifting lameness between legs.
Worsened hip and elbow dysplasia — a dog genetically predisposed to dysplasia will express it far worse if grown fast and heavy.
Knuckling over and carpal laxity in the front legs.

This is the one that voids the guarantee

Joint problems caused by overfeeding or by the wrong food are the only orthopaedic issues our health guarantee does not cover — because they are not hereditary, they are management. We will give you a feeding plan and we are on the phone if you are unsure. Please use it.

Judging body condition

Forget the scales for a moment. Learn to read the dog instead, using the standard 9-point body condition score. A growing Great Dane should sit at 4 out of 9 — slightly lean.

Check him weekly, standing, with your hands:

Ribs: you should feel each one easily with flat palms, with only a thin layer of covering. You should not see them prominently from across the room.
Waist: looking down from above, there should be a clear hourglass behind the ribs.
Tuck: from the side, the belly should rise distinctly from the ribcage to the hind legs.
Hips and spine: you should feel them under light pressure, not see them standing out.

If in doubt, lean. A slightly thin Great Dane puppy catches up without consequence. A chubby one does not.

Exercise and growth plates

The growth plates — the soft cartilage zones at the ends of the long bones — do not close in this breed until 18 to 24 months. Until they do, repetitive concussion damages them permanently.

The rule we give every family:

Five minutes of lead walking per month of age, twice a day. A four-month-old gets two twenty-minute walks. No more.
No running on hard surfaces and never alongside a bicycle, before 18 months.
No repetitive jumping — no agility, no frisbee, no leaping in and out of the car. Lift or ramp him.
Limit stairs where you reasonably can, especially going down.
Free play on grass is fine and good. A puppy self-regulating in the garden will stop when tired. A puppy on a lead next to a jogger will not.

After 18 months, with your vet's agreement, you can build up normal adult activity. Even then a Great Dane is not a distance running breed and never becomes one.

Full adult size

A male finishes at 30–34 inches at the withers and 140–185 lb; a female at 28–32 inches and 110–145 lb. Our lines run slightly above the middle of those ranges for males.

Some practical consequences worth planning for before he arrives:

An adult crate is 54 in × 37 in × 45 in. Measure the room.
His head is at counter height. Everything edible must live behind a door.
Raised feeding is not recommended — see Bloat & GDV.
A car ramp saves his elbows and your back.
A bed must be at least 48 inches long, and he will still hang off it.

Every puppy page on this site carries a projected adult weight and height based on that puppy's parents and its own curve so far. It is a projection, not a promise — Great Danes vary, and so do the families who feed them.

Size & growth chart.